#118: Kristy Thomas, Dog Trainer
Deb Cooper, a classmate of Shannon’s, has lost her sight to a condition called angle closure glaucoma. She hasn’t been in school and refuses to see any of her friends. She is understandably angry at the world and at her circumstances, and is lashing out at everyone — including her family and the members of the BSC who are coming by the house to baby-sit her little brothers, Mark and Jed.
The baby-sitters react predictably: Mary Anne cries when she leaves because she wants to make Deb feel better and can’t, Stacey is cool and gives Mark a practical and actionable idea to help his sister, and Kristy dishes back as good as she gets. On Kristy’s watch, Deb gets fed up because she wants to go to the video store. She leaves the house on her own, goes the wrong way, and ends up in the middle of the street nearly getting hit by a bunch of cars. Kristy rescues her and smack-talks some sense into her.
Meanwhile, Deb’s mother works with Watson and Watson has been inspired to help raise a puppy for the Guide Dog Foundation. At 14 months, the puppy will go to the Foundation for training and then will be placed with a blind person and serve as their guide dog.
The Brewer-Thomases receive an adorable and wiggly little chocolate Labrador retriever named Scout. They have to treat and train Scout differently than their existing dog, Shannon; for example, Scout has to pee on the pavement at the command “get busy” and can’t see other dogs as playmates or learn any behaviors that would be distracting or harmful to the guide dog’s eventual owner. This is difficult (especially with Karen around, lol) but Scout is a very good boy, of course!
The advice Stacey gave Mark Cooper, who wants his sister Deb to be able to have a guide dog, was to write to the Guide Dog Foundation, which he did. He received a response saying that people can get a guide dog starting at age 16, which gives Mark — and later Deb — some hope.
Since this book is mostly about a cute Lab retriever pup, here’s a cute photo of my dog niece, Ella:
